NWMCA 2018-19: Aberfeldie St Johns Adam Gray hammers club-record score of 301
Dropped on four, Aberfeldie St Johns batsman Adam Gray launched a boundary blitz to make history with a club-record score on Saturday.
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Dropped on four, Aberfeldie St Johns batsman Adam Gray launched a boundary blitz to make history as the club’s first triple-centurion on Saturday.
No Strathmore Heights bowler was spared as the 24-year-old set a new mark for the North West Metro Cricket Association club’s record score of 301 in Round 12 of the Seipolt Shield.
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The son of club legend Colin Gray, Adam hammered 41 boundaries and 13 sixes in a 206-ball innings.
“I got to 100 in pretty slow time and by then my eye was just in,” Gray said.
“The next 200 runs, they literally just came so quick. I was seeing them like beach balls.
“It is really surreal. Each fifty just kept coming up and the wicketkeeper goes to me, ‘I have shaken your hand six times today’ when I got to 300.”
Aberfeldie St Johns reached an imposing 4-526 in the 70-over fixture thanks to Gray’s heroics as the right-hander went 180 runs better than his previous high score of 121.
“By tea I was on 127. Then after that, I reckon I got to 200 not too long after tea,” he said.
“I was speaking to the guy I was batting with when there was 15-20 overs left in the day and he was going ‘you could probably have a good crack at getting to 300 here’.
“I didn’t think I was hitting them that great. Then he goes, ‘I reckon we could probably get to 500 here’.
“I thought 500 was probably a bit far away. But they just kept coming off the bat well and I put a few over the fence. I hit one bloke for three sixes in a row over the same fielder.”
Gray has been in a rich vein of form for the club’s Second XI, compiling 115 not out in Round 10 against East Coburg.
“One of my good mates (Julian Zoccali) is the captain in the twos and I have just been playing with him for a handful of games this year,” he said.
“I thought I’d have a year off. I’ve been playing a bit of golf on Saturdays and giving Julian a bit of a chop out to fill in the numbers.”
Gray, who works as an electrician and plays football for Airport West in the EDFL, said his efforts at the weekend had fuelled his desire to make a full-time return to cricket.
“That knock on the weekend was enough to gee me up to get back out there and play some more,” he said.
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